A Love Story On Two Timelines
by nightmarecircles
Summary: Two Tarkirs. Each with a pair of fighters whose fates are intertwined. On one, Padomme the Jeskai monk searches for the renegade Wuyong. On the other, Wuyong the Atarka seeks revenge against the Ojutai and meets the clan's defender, Padomme.
1. Chapter 1

Padomme the djinn sat suspended in the air. Most djinn could fly, but no one on Tarkir could fly like her. She was young but already presumed to be a leader of the Jeskai clan. She studied hard and learned quickly. Although with all the praise given to her, she couldn't help but find it wanting. A nagging emptiness clung to the back of her mind that no amount of enlightenment seemed to fix.

* * *

Wuyong's blaze raged on for miles. He had lost his home and his family. The Dragonlord Ojutai sought to reclaim the lands he protected for Atarka. He survived. As for how, he couldn't say but he survived. He was a proud efreet shaman of the Atarka clan and that meant he wasn't going to let Ojutai refreeze the lands he called home.

* * *

"You lack understanding." Padomme said without opening her eyes. She floated above the rushing river her students surrounded. They were a mix of human, aven, and djinn.

'_They are so young_,' she thought. '_Was I this young when I began? That's hard to believe._'

"To reach the clouds, one must realize that there is nothing in their way." She drifted to her student and looked him up and down. "Look above you. There is no obstacle in your way." Padomme followed her student's gaze to the clouds. There was nothing above them but open air.

"But master, no matter how high I jump I will always land back on the ground." The human replied.

"Do you think of me so highly that I will never hit the ground?"

"No master."

"I will land again. And I will rise again but I will always land." She placed a hand on his shoulder. "Think on this and tommorow I will show you all how to truly jump." She told them with a smile. "You are dismissed."

Her students bowed and went their separate ways. She stayed at the river but changed to a more relaxed posture. She lay in the air in line with the river's flow. She reached into the river. Cold quick water spread over her hands. This was all she ever wanted, understanding of the world, students, respect from her peers, understanding of her ability, but she could not find what it was she lacked.

"Master Padomme." A voice appeared at her side.

She drifted to the bank and landed on her feet. She bowed to the courier. "Yes?"

"Elder Korrei has requested you by name for an important mission." The courier bowed and handed her a scroll. "You are to leave immediately to hunt down the heretical monk Wuyong."

"Wuyong of Sage-Eye?" She blurted, "I would never have picked him as a traitor. Was he not the highest ranked efreet in the clan?"

"Most of us are under the same thought, master."

Padomme couldn't believe what she had heard. A thought sparked in her mind like a fresh campfire. "What of my students?"

"Elder Korrei said he would personally see to all of your responsibilities."

Padomme sighed. "Well if Elder Korrei thinks I am best suited for the task I cannot doubt his judgement. I will find Wuyong and bring him back to Sage-Eye Stronghold."

They bowed at one another and the courier left. Padomme lingered at the river for a moment. Elder Korrei had been her teacher he knew her better than possibly she did. '_Why only me?_' Wuyong was an accomplished monk and master of bloodfire before he abandoned the Jeskai. Could she face him in battle if or when it came down to it?

* * *

Wuyong glared at the dragons circling the neighboring Ojutai sanctuary. It was a smaller sanctuary but well guarded. It protruded from the side of the mountain on a sheer cliff. They had done this to him. They had taken his wholeness and left him feeling empty. He would not rest until he personally delivered one of their brood to Dragonlord Atarka.

He had climbed for days to reach the gates of the sanctuary. He was ragged and tired but his rage pulled ever closer to the prey he sought. Fire poured from his hands and there was no gate. The air here was cold and draining but Wuyong had plans to remedy that. Cold and ice would never be a problem in these mountains. The glory of fire would consume them all.

"Stand at the ready!" Monks shouted from all around him.

A single djinn woman walked to the opening he created. They locked eyes and she spoke, "What does an Atarka serving boy want with our sanctuary." Her voice was power in sound form.

Her blood was hotter than the other djinn around her. Wuyong had more often relied on his heat sensitivity than his other senses. He could feel the heat of fire in living being waiting to be freed. It made him an excellent game hunter and a better fighter.

"Your icy breath betrays you. I am the unattended ember and I am here to burn you to the ground where you belong." Wuyong shouted. "I will have my vengeance." He charged at the stoic djinn, his hands filled with fire.

The monks on the ledges readied their weapons but the djinn woman raised her hand to call them off. "So it seems talking isn't an option." Her toes lifted from the ground and she sped towards Wuyong. He tried to bring a handful of glorious fire to her but she slid between his legs. She released her weapons. Two unassuming cloth ribbons of stark red. The cold air whisked them up and unfurled them. There were blades sewn into the exquisite fabric. Rising up into the air she surrounded the efreet in four upward columns of red. He swung at the cloth but as he did it coiled around his limbs.

As he struggled to strike the cloth. The monk flew and spun, twisting him further in the prison of fabric. He paused. He inhaled deep and exhaled a plume of fire at the ribbon tying his wrists. That was exactly as the monk had planned. While distracted and off balance he was defenseless from her assault. She pulled a large dagger from her ribbon and brought it down with force into his shoulder. A quick twist of her body and the djinn's leg careened into Wuyong's wound. He sped into the sanctuary wall.

"You are untrained. Your emotions cannot guide you further than the door. Skill is what will bring you to my battlefield." She flicked her wrists and he was untied. Frigid winds brought the remaining ribbon to her. It wrapped her arm with the blades on the outside.

Wuyong wrenched the blade from his shoulder and cut himself free from the smoldering cloth. It was an more elaborate and decorated than any weapon he'd seen. His clan did not bother with decoration, so long as the weapon worked. He seethed hot air into the cold around him.

_'How dare she say that. I am the most skilled shaman in the Fire Rim. I have personally fed Atarka!_' thoughts raged in his mind. They were made all the worse by her glare.

He placed his hands on the wall behind him. He felt the cracks his body had made by crashing into it. Behind it was the mountain. He felt the heart of it beat loudly in his mind. Fire longing to be free. Free to show these ice monks its power. The sanctuary shook with his raw power and that of the mountain.

Glowing orange lava spewed from the wall. It surrounded him like a cloak of molten rock. "This is my emotion Monk! This is my vengeance!"

Monks scrambled to and fro to protect what they could of the crumbling sanctuary. Wuyong roared with triumph at the glorious lava pulled the building into the canyon below.


	2. Chapter 2

The breeze was unseasonably warm as Padomme flew down river. She was heading towards Wuyong's last known location, a small village to the south.

'_Why would he be going from village to village?_' She thought a she traveled. '_Most traitors run straight to the other clans._'

A burst of fire broke her contemplation. She wheeled upward to dodge.

"Come no further monk." The efreet stood facing perpendicular to her with is arm stretched out. His open palm smoked from his last spell. "You come for me do you not? Come to slay Wuyong the Sightless Flame? Do what you must but do not do it withing the village."

Padomme landed on the river bank. "I am here to bring you to Sage-Eye. Whether we fight or not isn't up to me. That's for you to decide."

"I can no longer endure the rigid binding of the Jeskai. My home is out here with the people. Teaching love and passion." Wuyong shifted stances to prepare for battle. "I can sense your heart."

Padomme shifted stances to match the tension. He was clearly not going to come with her. He hit a nerve but her training taught against letting taunts win. "I would hate to fight someone so sure his path lead to enlightenment."

"I would have to say the same."

Grass and dirt sprayed behind Padomme as she flew towards the efreet. She pushed his outstretched arm from her path and swung a hand at his chest. Wuyong dodged back and brought an elbow towards her head. She flew into his chest and they tumbled. The both hopped to their stances. Neither seemed to be able to get in a decent hit.

The djinn lifted her weapons. Two tightly wrapped blue ribbons, each with a hidden dagger stashed within the coil. She used the ribbons and her wind magic to control where the dagger would go. She would tangle the efreet until he had no option but to come with her.

She flung the balled up ribbons at her foe grasping the ends at the last second. The ribbons unfurled into expanding streaks of bright blue. Wuyong stayed motionless. Ready to attack. But she wasn't going to give him an opening. She breathed a spiraling breeze into existence with Wuyong at its center. Ribbons surrounded him at all angles. All Padomme needed to do was pull and the ribbons would ensnare him. She jerked back on each cloth but Wuyong was gone.

Small orbs of fire popped up on her ribbons. They hopped and flew down them, making more orbs that did the same. She pulled them upwards thinking the wind would extinguished the fire but it shook the orbs loose. They fell right towards her from above. She jumped to the left and began to fly but Wuyong's long leg was there. He kicked her back down into the river as the fire orbs fell at the bank.

"You are imprisoned. Let yourself feel or you will never find the door to true enlightenment. And your frozen focus will only betray you on the battlefield." Wuyong explained. "Until you see life from a tricksters point of view you are too stale to beat me."

Padommed shot skyward from the cold water. It splashed over him and his lingering fire spell. She soared skyward at speeds she hadn't gone since her youth. Meanwhile, the extinguished orbs sparked back to life. Wuyong broke a smirk and sent them at her. He paused as the fire didn't obey him. Only half the orbs went to their target. The others bobbed in the air around the river. He stepped away but the soaked earth betrayed his feet. He tumbled back but Padomme came spinning down and brought a heel to the back of his head. Wuyong crumpled to the ground.

"I've never met a spell I couldn't cast." She said standing over him. "And each time I do I get better."

"That spell was of my own design. I had never taught it to another." Wuyong propped himself up on his elbows. "Amazing."

"Quite a complex efreet trickster spell." Padomme grinned from horn to horn. "You really shouldn't give your opponent advice on how to beat you."

"But an opponent that takes my advice has already taken up my cause." Wuyong gasped before falling unconscious.

* * *

The lava had carried Wuyong to safety. He was too ashamed to return to his clan empty handed so he had made camp in the canyon. The Ojutai had left but they wanted this land almost as much as he did so they would be back. And in greater numbers.

One cold night weeks later a murmur of heat appeared by his camp. Too hot to be prey. This was a person. And it was someone angry. As far as he knew he was the only Atarka this far into Ojutai territory.

"Monk. Have you come for revenge?" he said into his campfire. "Stealth is for Silumgar. Show yourself."

"I am Padomme, the Frozen River." The monk he had fought before explained as she came into his line of sight. "Revenge is not who I am. I've come to erase a danger to my clan."

"You are still wounded after all this time?" Wuyong asked. He saw her pale blue skin was covered in scratches and bruising and several bad burns. "Why then do you hunt me?"

"You are a danger. I will not go back to my people without your fiery head in my hands." She spat at him.

"You aren't trained in healing? Not even first aid?" Wuyong shook his head but did not stand. "Your training betrays you."

"Quiet savage!" Padomme fell to a log for support. "Face me again!"

"That is not my vengeance. I want one of your clan's dragons. To feed it to Atarka is my only wish now." Wuyong explained.

"Disgusting." she pulled herself to a sitting position.

"Perhaps but it is my passion now. The only thing I want." Wuyong flicked his wrist and the fire grew. "Rest. I would not fight you like this. My passion does not come from kicking the weak."

Wuyong stretched out over his sleeping mat. He turned away from Padomme. She could not defeat him like this. He would return her to her clan the next day. They would have their fight soon enough.

* * *

"Padomme. What a powerful name." Wuyong jested as the djinn carried him. "It suits you."

"Quiet traitor." Padomme barked as she reinforced the rope tying him up. She conjured an orb of water the size of her head and doused the rope. "You won't be burning through these."

"I would not dare to. You've proven a better fight than me, and you've proven quite the trickster."

"Quiet traitor." She barked again. "I am an honorable master of the Jeskai arts. Not some wandering efreet."

"But have you ever wondered why I am bound and many other of my people wander free?"

"I assume you know too much."

"I fear you know too little." Wuyong retorted. "Elder Korrei was very supportive when I left the clan to wander free. Why then I wonder did he send you?"

"Perhaps you make the other elders nervous. Secrets of the clan should be shared with those who can handle them. No one else."

"Did he ever tell you that he trained me as well? He was my master before he was yours. In fact we were wandering tricksters together."

"Impossible. Elder Korrei was never like you."

"Even better than me actually. But unlike me he could stand the stuffiness of the clan politics."

"I will not be tricked traitor. I have info that you were spreading false Jeskai doctrine to the locals. What is your plan? Train an army of peasants to overthrow the clan's structure?"

"My own path to enlightenment doesn't discriminate against those not in the clan. And this path is not one to be taken alone. Luckily I have you to walk it with me."

Padomme dropped him to the earth with a loud thud. "I am not walking that path of yours. I walk the one I was taught."

"And were have you gotten?"

Padomme froze. '_I've just gotten to the cusp. I cannot find the missing piece._'

"Quiet traitor."

"I am a traitor only in code. The ideas I teach are wholly within the Jeskai Way."

"Quiet-" Padomme began. But she was cut off by the mob of humans standing in her way. "Who are all of you?"

"We are the followers of Master Wuyong." One woman stepped out of the crowd. "Days ago he came to our village. He taught us what we could never learn. Most of us cannot join the clan proper. We have duties here in our village and to each other, but Master Wuyong explained that too is the Jeskai Way."

"Or as you call it secret doctrine. They seem to have handled it just fine."

To punctuate his sentence the villagers struck battle poses. Their form was raw but it was good. What's more it was united. Each person's weakness she could detect was made up for by another's strength. Having taught for so long gave her the insight needed to know what people were going to do by stance alone.

"All this from a few days?" She asked.

"And we sorted our own paths."

"Show her the last resort." Wuyong asked behind Padomme.

The villagers bowed. Like lightning they were back into their stances but this time their foreheads flickered with red light. Then their hands began to softly glow red.

"You taught them bloodfire in days?" Padomme exclaimed.

"Not exactly. It's my own brand of Bloodfire. Only useable when they're united against a common oppressor. Their fury mingles with each other to make something like a bloddfire state."

Padomme pointed to herself, "and that would be me."

'How was everything making sense.' This was like her teachings. She saw the faces of her students in the villagers. '_Is this what's missing? Comradery?_' She felt at best when bonding with her students. '_Is Wuyong right?_'

"I can't believe I'm going to say this but," Padomme took a long pause, "but I am going to let you go Wuyong." The villagers began to cheer but she interrupted them. "On the condition that I travel with you. Your teaching is rough and emotional. I think you need skill and discipline to balance it out. To teach the full Jeskai Way." She summoned an elemental bird and a scroll. "I will send word to the elders. With me around they will not bother you anymore."

Wuyong nodded.

* * *

"Atarka Savage." Padomme's voice broke the silence of the night.

"Ojutai Puppet." He responded, already channeling energy.

"I will thank you for delivering me to my people weeks ago but you are still a danger." Padomme drew her weapons. "But that is the end of my gratitude. We have given you the name Wuyong Realmrazer. We do not yet know why you roam this border or why you burn both your land and ours but we're shutting you down."

"Go ahead and try Frozen River." Wuyong roared as fire exploded around him.

Padomme charged him. As she flew she turned the cloth bundles bladeside out. She struck for his head but he was quicker. In place of an efreet's face, Padomme found a flaming duplicate. It engulfed her crimson ribbon instantly.

She chanted lightly and ice consumed the flaming fabric tied to her arm. She swung her new ice spike laden limb at his head once more but he blocked it with the same dagger she had planted in his shoulder before.

"I must thank you for this. It has been quiet helpful." Wuyong joked.

He pulled the dagger down and hooked it on a blade hidden in the ice. Padomme came with it. She began to tumble forward but caught herself and started to fly. Wuyong brought his knee upwards into her chin. Then thrust his open palm into her chest and sent her reeling back.

"You rely too much on your training." He ignited his hands. "And your flight. Your tiny excuse for a dragonlord should have waited and sent you. The patrols sent to stop me only taught me how to dispatch monks like you. That and to feed my dragonlord."

They glared at each other and clashed once more. Their moves were in synch such that neither could land a blow. Each aatack was met with a parry. Each spell was met with a response. There was no order to it only the raw passions of each fighter and Wuyong reveled in it. He felt the change in the djinn's fire. It was like nothing he'd seen before. He felt something strange stir in his heart for this woman. A fire he'd never felt before, except within her. He wanted to show her his passion and to feel hers.

The joy of this battle began to slow as the sun started to rise. Through pained breaths Wuyong remarked, "You've changed djinn. I like it."

"I have found the passion you prattle on about. It is defeating you."

"And I have found the discipline you preach. My endgame is coming puppet. Try and stop me."

Earth cracked and stones bit into Padomme. Lava sprayed out the earth like fresh wounds. Wuyong made the molten lava dance around her head.

"How long was this your plan, Savage? One trick doesn't work twice." She summoned ice and frost in great numbers. It was the breathe of a dragon and it chilled the lava quickly.

"So we;ve both been building to something grand." Wuyong whistled a fiery breath. "Too bad I planned for two."

A great ogre slammed through trees as it sprinted towards Padomme. She winced as she brought the remainder of her ice spell up over the chargin beast. It slowed it long enough for her to escape in the resulting ice shower.

Wuyong was sure he heard her say "Next time."


	3. Chapter 3

A year passed. It was the greatest time of Padomme's life. Her joy for teaching was amplified by intertwining the teachings of Wuyong. Her studies had left a crucial part out of her path, passion. She no longer restrained herself when it came to her feelings. Which is why one night she had to get something off her chest.

"Wuyong?" She asked to the dark room. Most villages knew of the wandering monks that spread the Jeskai Way to the poor and underprivileged. As such they often provided lodgings for them during their stays. Most villages were very poor so often they spent their nights in small huts constructed just for them.

"Yes, Master Padomme?" The dark responded.

"A long time ago I realized I had no interest in the romantic arts. I desired no mate or spouse. This is just part of who I am. But I do love you Wuyong and I don't want to spend any of my life without you at my side."

The room glowed a soft orange from the efreet's body. Wuyong had sat down next to her and embraced her. "I couldn't imagine myself anywhere but with you. We are not married, we are not 'lovers' we are-"

"We are in love." Padomme finished. She pressed her forehead against his.

* * *

A year passed. It was the busiest time of Wuyong's life. He toiled at teh border between Atarka and Ojutai. He knew attacking over and over again wouldn't get him what he wanted. It would take a plan. Many times he thought of giving up but each time his fire was renewed when he met Padomme. The two would meet, each with an entourage of clanmates. In the end each time only they remained. Wuyong didn't kill her, because he wanted her to watch Atarka eat her precious dragons. That's what he told himself at least. He didn't finish her off in any fight because he couldn't bring himself to. He knew she was the same because the fights she won he too escaped.

"Wuyong?" An Atarka efreet asked.

"Yes friend." He responded.

"I have word from Ayagor. The dragons have take interest in your campaign. They fly to us as we speak."

"Then we will have our feast soon. Thank you."

* * *

The crashing of hooves woke the monks from their sleep. The sun was high already and the air stank of burning wood and flesh.

"Mardu!" They both exclaimed as they bolted from their bed. They were out of the hut in seconds. The village was a disaster of broken homes and stampeding Mardu. Their horse riders crashed through the town, breaking and burning what they could find. Following them was a herd of orcs and goblins on foot. They stole all goods they could find and even villagers.

Padomme touched her forehead to Wuyong's and flew into the fray. She spun and kicked an orc from his mount. "Take care of the foot soldiers!"

Wuyong nodded and jumped the opposite way at the incoming Mardu. Fire exploded from the direction and Padomme returned to her task. She flew at top speed to keep up with the horses. All the while she summoned water spells to douse the burning huts. _'This is useless they burn them faster than I can fight the fires.'_ She observed.

She put everything she had into preparing a spell and flying faster. She soon reached the beginning of the horde and landed violently in front of it. There was a massive orc at the head. She closed her eyes. Everything vanished for a moment in her mind. She experienced every joy the last year had brought again. It inspired her. Helping her people. Spreading her doctrine. Leading the man she loved, despite every reason why that didn't make sense, down the path to enlightenment. She found it. She found the part of her mind that told her she'd finally found it. She opened her eyes and took a fighting stance at the incoming horde. Her palm flared like the eye of a waking dragon. Then all was calm.

White light had decimated the horde proper. She limped back through the devastation. She had lost all energy but the horde seemed to have been wiped out. She found Wuyong and went to him. He was facedown in a pile of hordling goblins. She rushed over and flipped him. He was filled with their knives.

"Padomme." he coughed. "I saw what you did. I know what it meant. They had me pinned down I was already dead. Do you know what I thought about?"

"No. Be quiet! No don't be ridiculous. You are going to make it. Do you hear me!?"

"I thought about you. I didn't want to go without speaking to you one last time and feeling that you'd found your path. I didn't want to go without touching you one last time."

"Quiet traitor!" She screamed, "Don't speak like that! Don't speak like that! I'll find a way to help you! I broke through every obstacle in my path. I'll break through this one."

"There aren't now and never were any obstacles between you and the clouds." He whimpered as the light left his body.

She planted her forehead on his and Tarkir melted around her.

* * *

Dragons soared over Wuyong's head. Emerald fire met azure ice as the dragons of two clans battled in the sky. He had led them here. He had taught his fighters how to combat the cunning of the Ojutai clan. His passion made all this.

Fire roared from his hands as Wuyong felled monk after monk. He needed to attract more attention to himself. He needed her to see his discipline bear fruit. And so it did. As Wuyong finished off the next wave of monks, one of the dragons of his clan crashed next to him. He fell at the tremors.

Padomme jumped from the fallen behemoth's head. "Heat sense. Leads to pressure points."

Her discipline had matched his passion. She was every bit of him as he was of her. But she was gravely wounded from taking down a dragon.

"Ojutai himself taught me that." She limped to him. "What do you say now Savage?" She was clearly delirious.

"So the puppet knows a trick or two. So be it then." Lava erupted with his syllables. They fought as they had always done but the blows were not met with parries. They found their mark, each had given in to their own passions. She threw her ribbon. A crimson streak tore the scene. It wrapped his arm to his waist and she pulled. He lost his footing and was dragged up as she flew. Higher and higher she flew with all her might. Wuyong pulled all his mana into one final spell. The ritual he's wandered the border for an entire year to make. Lava rose with them in terrible geisers. It hit many Ojutai dragons, and many of his own clan's. He knew Atarka would receive them as meals but he no longer cared.

"Look Padomme!" He shouted up to her, pulling her dagger from his belt. "Look at my passion and my discipline!"

Padomme stopped in the air once she hit an unbelievable height. They soared beyond dragons. She began to turn to face the ground but changed direction instead. She flew with matched force downward at Wuyong and plunged her daggers into his eyes.

"Padomme!" He screamed as his vision disappeared. "NO!" In his rage he plunged the dagger he had taken from their first fight deep into her stomach. He felt her heat leave her body, certain that neither of them would ever see that the lava had spelled her name across the entire border of their lands.

Wuyong fell from that great height. Down towards a land that was not Tarkir.


	4. Epiloge

The efreet landed in a different world. This world was like the battlefield he left. Great Dragons ruled the sky and lava erupted as far as his heat sense could reach. Wuyong held the tattered remains of the crimson ribbon his love wielded. Without speaking he wrapped it over his eyes and traveled up the volcano to begin a new life on Jund.

* * *

Tremendous spires of stone rose and rose where Tarkir melted away. Padomme was at the bottom of a dark dungeon. Alone. She found the wall. Which led to stairs. She followed them up until she reached a well lit room.

"Well, well, well," Said the man with the metal arm. "You've picked a hell of a first place to planeswalk. Can I offer you a job?"


End file.
